Annexation is a dirty word. Its abuses the use of the Ohio Revised Code and the annexation laws to temporary satisfy the city needs.
Government does take the unhealthy practice to spin how great it is to be part of the cities services when in reality they have no legitimate obligations such as time tables for extending services to the newly annexed area, as well as no provisions for Municipal-township annexation agreements. Under the Ohio Revised Code http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/709.19 a municipality must compensate the township or village for lost revenues. This is a twelve year cycle. If a municipality is struggling with budgetary problems, how can their short comings successfully work if now they incur more debt?
If the annexation happens you will still have to participate in paying that 1.5 to 2 percent City tax and receive empty promises without anything you can do about it.
Annexation is very glorified as the way to go. Annexation is the quick fix to boost city tax revenue and pay for services, but the quick fix generally becomes a 2 year legal battle and still municipalities and township budgets continue to hemorrhage. Annexation only works short term till more money is needed and wolfs come out to start the cycle again.
Annexation makes it difficult to have any sort of long range development plans when portions of your boundaries and tax base are lost. It hinders any economic progression and is a band aid on the larger picture.
Cities have taken good advantage of annexation up to now but it's not the wave of the future. Our communities need to seize the opportunity and make up for the slowdown and budget shortages through joint planning and regional cooperation. Money is extremely scarce and the effects of this a negative economy gives us an ability to retool our region by looking at our resources like infrastructure so that there is more then tax abatements and hostel takeovers.
We are in a financial war and it is at a global level. Annexation prolongs long term solutions for a region and creates more bricks in that wall around our individual communities.
Here are some of our local annexation information and some ORC legislation.
Massillon Ohio
http://www.massillonohio.com/annex.html
Canton Ohio
http://www.cantonohio.gov/annexation/
Ohio Revised Code Incorporating and other annexation information
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/707
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/709.024
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/search/503.07
